Floods may affect agri-environment scheme delivery

Farmers who are concerned they may not be able to meet requirements of their agri-environment schemes due to the flooding are being urged to contact Natural England.


Agreement holders in England should contact their Natural England adviser or its customer services as soon as possible if they believe the flooding will have an impact on delivering parts of their agreements, for example grazing.


“Natural England fully recognises that farmers will not know the scale of the impact at this stage or the potential issues the flooding has caused,” said the government agency in a statement.


“This will take time to establish. Natural England will work with agreement holders to advise on solutions or change agreements. The best solution may be a temporary derogation.”


“If you cannot comply with the provisions of your existing agreement, you need to let us know as soon as possible, and at least within 10 days from when you are in a position to tell us about the actual problem,” it added.


The Environmental Stewardship handbook (Version 4 2013) says: “For force majeure to be taken into account, you must have notified us [Natural England] of the force majeure event in writing within 10 working days of you, or your representative, being in a position to do so.


“Where you are not in a position to notify us immediately after the force majeure event, you will need to state the date on which you were first in a position to notify us and explain the delay.”


The Natural England customer services number is 0300 060 0011.


In Wales, NFU Cymru urged flood-hit farmers who fear they may not be able to meet the terms of their Glastir agreements to contact the Welsh government.


An NFU Scotland spokeswoman said the recent round of storms had not affected Scotland as much as the rest of the UK and most farmers under agri-environment schemes were unaffected.


But she added: “Some areas have been hit worse than others by the recent storms, with loss of land a major issue as well as more minor damage to buildings.


“The full extent of the cost is not known yet but, for example, in the Kilmarnock and North Ayrshire area around 50 storm claims have been intimated with no flood reports.


“Many have lost the use of significant areas of land as the wet weather continues, for example again in Ayrshire when the River Nith burst its banks.”


More on this topic


Cuts could harm DEFRA crisis response, warn MPs